my dog has had a blood test for cushing disease, has anyone had expeince of this she needs morw tests to prove it si but these cost a lot of money. if this is proved how is it treated. She is 9yrs old.
I don't have any experience of Cushings in dogs but I do in horses. It's related to insulin resistance & usually only appears in older animals. It can be managed quite successfully with the right diet & minimal drugs. That's in horses though of course...
I've found with vets, it's often a good idea to ask about ALL possible options for diagnosis & treatment as, in my experience, they're not always forthcoming with information & other possibilities/options.
Hi, we had a dog with Cushings Disease, we first noticed the continual urination was the first sign, just a few little drops every little while, that was why we took her to the vet. First off they thought it was a urinary infection, but did a blood test and then confirmed it was Cushings. Treatment that was suggested was we give her an injection every day, and blood test at the vets each month so they could monitor the dosage as to whether it was increased or decreased on the results of the blood test. We decided that we couldn't be injecting her everyday and blood test each month so we would see how things panned out with no treatment. She seemed to improve on the urination thing, but her hair got quite thin and sparse especially in the summer. Otherwise all seemed to be Ok for about 12 months then she seemed to get quite thin and just slept most of the day, and she curled up in the bean bag that she slept in at that time and I noticed she was panting a lot during the warm summer evening, and when I went to check her before I went to bed she had passed away, very quietly and peacefully. Dogs, Cats and Horses can get it. The dog was 12 years old, a Papillion, Chuawawa cross. Cheers and hope this helps.
We had a beloved dog diagnosed with Cushings Disease years ago, and the first vet we saw said that based on her symptoms, similar to what you described Farmer53, gave her about 2 months to live because her kidneys would have been so whacked out. We went to a 'holistic' vet (this was all in the US, and in the city we lived near there were actually several of this type of vet!) and he put her on a special diet that was easy on her kidneys, as well as essiac tea (which is mainly used for cancer treatment, but he felt it was an excellent immune booster). She had this for 2.5 years before the disease actually claimed her, and she had a very vigourous 2.5 years at that (she died at the age of 12 - she was a Lhasa Apso). If you google kidney diets for dogs, there are lots of them out there. It was a little extra effort to feed her in this way, but well worth it. It was at this time (this would have been about 10 or 11 years ago now) that we learned about the benefits of raw feeding our dogs and cats, and that's what we've done since then.
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